JT35, 5/1/2012

Date: May 1, 2012

Participants: Tom Mahood

General search area: Saddle area northeasterly of Samuelson’s Rocks

Rationale for searching this area:

If Bill did the usual thing distressed persons do (head downhill), he would;d have gone over the Quail Mountain ridge, and from that point all drainages feed into Quail Wash. There is a point in Quail Wash, westerly of Samuelson’s Rocks, where a ping to the Serin Drive cell tower is possible, and it’s at the 10.6 mile mark. Howver there area from that point further downhill ( southwest) has been searched plus it gets a lot of local traffic. Is there a route where Bill could have nicked the cell coverage but not continued downhill?

Yes, if he turned north after passing the hill with the cell coverage and climbed easterly toward the Park Road. Jeri and I had checked part of the possible route in JT11, but I discovered there was another possible route we failed to notice and check. This trip was to clear that area.

Impressions of area and findings:

Very open terrain with not much in the way of cover. There are two or three hiking trail segments that pass through this area that appear to get some use. While not well maintained trails (they are more like cross country routes), they were marked with cairns and worn.

Coverage level: Probably 70% from my efforts, and perhaps a higher value if you factor in users of the cross country routes.

Comments:

This area probably wasn’t worth a trip out there, but in my mind it needed clearing. Upon seeing the area, the climb it would have required up out of Quail Wash and the presence of the existing trails, it seems very unlikely an area. After checking on this primary area of interest, I became a tourist for the remainder of the trip and climbed the free standing hills to the northwest of Samuelson’s Rocks. While certainly not a place Bill would go, I had been curious about the terrain up there. The hill tops provided excellent 360 degree panoramas of the area. I sat for a while on the highest of the hills, looking at the terrain toward Quail Mountain and thought a lot. I’ve included one of them in this report, with notations as to the landmarks.